little interest ; and of course it is all wasted on me because I 

 do not understand his language. 



I am trying some experiments in vernalization with Leuco- 

 spermum seeds. In the ordinary way we cannot sow here until 

 April, and that is just when growers want to put out their 

 plants so as to give them as long a growing season as possible. 

 I find that when I sow in April they come through irregularly 

 in May, June and July ; and people who have ordered them are 

 by that time getting more and more impatient. I do not think 

 it is a good thing to keep them through the summer in tins, 

 though it can be done ; and if one leaves them in the ground 

 by autumn, when they could be moved, the roots are too long 

 for any tin. So we must find some way of persuading them 

 to germinate earlier. We shall see what soaking and freezing 

 will do ; but I feel that Russian wheat is far more amenable 

 to treatment than these individualistic wildings from the rough 

 mountain slopes of tough South Africa. 



There are cheering signs that the worst of the summer is 

 over. The early mornings are cool and still, and the mountains 

 provide a background of blue and gold. The robins are back 

 from the bush, and I hear their song very early or after dusk 

 a small and querulous song, for he is shy and seems to have 

 forgotten all his former intimacy. The long-tailed sugar-birds 

 are having a good time in the flowers of Kniphofia uvaria, the 

 long tail floating out on the breeze suggesting a streamer on 

 the handle of a torch. 



A very pretty sight is the Virgilia tree, now covered with its 

 second crop of pale pink sweet-scented blooms. It has a special 

 attraction for the tiny double-collared sugar-birds. I expect 

 that only they have beaks small enough for the blossoms. 

 They hover round the tree, darting in to the special spray 

 that takes their fancy and the sun glints on the brilliant green 

 plumage of the males with its conspicuous ruby-red splash 

 on the breast. So much intense colour and movement in so 

 minute a fragment of life ! 



34 



